Darkness - Aingeal Plumach
by Raena Lorezohaz
Summary: Post-OWAW Young Justice find that Darkness may be the only person to find their missing member!
1. Prologue

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Darkness: Aingeal Plumach 

Prologue

The War is over. Not even the Seraph Universe managed to escape being pulled into that great War, and the losses were great. Both Seraph and Nephil learned to work together and only in concert could they beat back the encroaching darkness. The world is a different place, and no-one has been left un-affected. Especially Young Justice. 

The team has changed, with the addition of a new member and the losses suffered by the rest of the team. Chronos, a young man with superspeed and the ability to move in time, was vital to the team's survival. Darkness's almost sister, Batgirl, was nearly killed in battle, and Valkyrie's home was destroyed. 

As the team struggles to come to grips with the new world and their new lives, a message comes from beyond the rabbit hole, a cry for help from an alternate Earth.

NOTE: Because people wanted more. And the fact that I'm already to chapter 3 on the YJ Fanfci mailing list with this fic. So here we are, I'm putting up the first 3 chapters, plus this prolgue. Have fun! 

~Rae


	2. Through the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 1 

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Through the Rabbit Hole

He stood in the middle of the street, a bright contrast to the darkness of Lower Gotham. This place was even creepier than normal Gotham. It just seemed... well, darker. More oppressing. He felt the sudden urge to cover his costume, to try and blend in with the dark pulse of the city. But he couldn't. No, he had to be the one they sent out to go find Darkness. He was terrified he'd be confronted with Batman. For all he knew the Batman here would be even MORE terrifying. 

"C'mon just get moving and find Darkness before Batman finds out you're here..." Kon gave himself a shake, and rose into the sky, scanning the rooftops and praying he'd find Darkness soon.

He was examining the depths of a rooftop shadow when a deep, spooky voice sounded from behind him. "What are you doing here?" Kon spun around with a start, almost falling over. 'Oh shooo...' he thought. "Uh... I'm, uh, looking for, uh, Darkness, Sir." Batman gave him The Look. Kon tried not to cower. "He's not here." Kon blinked. "He's... not here? Uh... Where is he?" Batman just stared at him for a moment. 'Oh god, this it... He'd gonna kill me...' Kon thought. Then came a question Kon was in no way prepared for. "Why are you in this universe?" It was Kon's turn to stare at Batman. "We.. Need his help. Sir." Batman gave him another measuring look and turned away. "He's at the Young Justice Headquarters." With that he was gone. "O-kayyyy..." Kon breathed, thankful NOT to be Batman's dinner. 'Might as well try the same place HQ is at in our universe...' he thought, and flew off. 

Darkness slumped into his chair at HQ. It had been an eventful month or so since his adventure in the Human Universe. In that period Young Justice had acquired a new member, the hyper, yet mysterious Chronos, who he had recognized as Impulse, and had gone through one hell of a war. Batgirl, Cass, was nearly killed. She'd been confined to bed until her injuries had healed. Valkyrie... Valkyrie's home was gone. Destroyed in an attack aimed for her. She was holding up surprisingly well, but he knew she cried in her room at HQ. 

Him? Well, he was... Preoccupied. His mind was on a certain someone in another universe. He had tried to put it out of his mind, to put HER out of his mind. His luck with girls was notoriously bad. Not that he couldn't get them to go out with him, heck no. It was just that they tended to end up dead. Spoiler, his last girlfriend, has murdered rather brutally in front of him. 

His thoughts were continuing in this pattern when Valkyrie walked in. She sat in the chair next to him and cleared her throat. "Brooding again, Dar?" she asked with a smile. He looked up. "Yeah, I guess." "Let me guess... Brooding over I girl." He stared at her. She smiled again and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Your mind's been on another planet, or in another universe, since you got back. Maybe you should try and visit?" Darkness shook his head. "You know my luck. Besides, we're too busy here to go visit." Valkyrie shook her head. "Whatever." 

An alarm went off . The intruder alarm to be exact. Just as they were jumping to their feet and on the alert, Superboy flew into the room. 

--END--

(A dark-ish room. Rae is tied to a chair, typing on the laptop in her lap. Rae looks up at Kon and Darkness and sighs.)

Rae: I'm done. Can I go now? I'm hungry.

Darkness: ...Fine. But we expect the next chapter in a timely fashion...

Disclaimer: DC owns Young Justice, I own the Seraphic Universe and this story.


	3. In Wonderland

Chapter 2

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In Wonderland

'Well, one thing's for sure...' Kon thought. 'This place has a better security system than our HQ does.' He flew into the meeting room to be met by the alarmed stares of Darkness and... somebody. She looked really familiar though...

Darkness stared. "Kon?!" he asked, disbelieving what he was seeing. It wasn't the Kon he was used to, whose costume more resembled armor, but the leather jacket and spiked hair of The Human Universe's Superboy. 

Valkyrie stared too. It was, and it wasn't Superboy. Very strange. After another second, she turned the alarm off, resetting it. Her gaze followed the amazed, mouth-gaping stare from Darkness, and the Superboy's relieved sigh, and how he was watching HER. She straightened slightly, trying to keep her feathers from ruffling in embarrassment.

Darkness gathered his startled wits and smiled. This was certainly unexpected, but nice as well. He followed Kon's gaze to Valkyrie and smiled internally. "Well, this is unexpected, Kon. To what do we owe the honor?" Darkness asked. "Oh, Kon, this is Valkyrie. Valkyrie, Superboy." 

Kon recognized her now, she looked just like Cassie, Wonder Girl. But this was a Cassie in tight-fitting red leather pants, and a backless black leather halter-top. She also wore armor on her arms and legs, and a breastplate emblazoned with a gold 'V'. Her hair was longer than Cassie's was, coming down to a few inches above her waist. Her wings were white, huge and soft-looking. 'Dang...' Kon thought. 'If this is what Cass'll look like with her hair long... Whooo...'

Valkyrie shrugged. She figured she reminded him of her counterpart in his universe, so she wasn't going to wonder why he was looking her over like he was. She waved and smiled. "Hi. You can call me Val."

Kon smiled back. "Hi. Call me Kon." Then, he turned to Darkness. "Uh, Sorry to burst you bubble if you're thinking I'm just here for a visit..." 

Darkness sighed. "I figured as much." He turned to Valkyrie. Before he even got a chance to say anything, she nodded. "I'll go let the others know it was just a false alarm, Dar. Nice meeting you Kon." She smiled and walked out of the room. "So, what's wrong?" he asked. 

Kon sighed and sat down. "By any chance, did this universe just fight a horrible, life-changing war?" Darkness nodded. "Damn. I was hoping this place escaped it. Well, after we got back home... the team changed. A lot. Bart, Impulse, quit being a superhero altogether, and Robin left the team." Kon paused. Darkness stared. Robin... left? "Why did he--" Kon cut him off. "Because half of us, myself included didn't trust him like we should have. We thought he was just another Batman." Darkness felt his own heart fall at that. That would have hurt like hell, alright. Especially when your best friend expected you to turn on him at any moment. "That would do it." Darkness said softly. "Yeah. He left before I could apologize, and now... now no-one can find him." 

"What?" Darkness asked, startled. "No-one can find him. Not even Batman or the others. It's like he's dropped off the face of the planet. That's what we need your help with, if you can spare the time, to help find Rob. I mean, you ARE him, so you might be the best person to find him..."

Darkness sighed. No choice really. "I'll come. Just let me let the others and Batman know."

--end Chapter 2--

Author's notes: Ha-ha! Finished this chapter in record time!

Darkness: Hmph. 

Anyway, here's the next heaping helping of ficcish goodness. Yargh. I'm in the thanksgiving spirit. And I feel a Christmas fic creeping up on me. Heh. Heh, heh, heh…..

Disclaimer: DC owns the Human universe Kon, and Robin. I own everything else. Steal and I send MY YJ team after you. 


	4. The Me In The Looking Glass

Darkness: Aingeal Plumach 

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Chapter 3 - The Me In The Looking Glass

Darkness paused outside the bedroom door. He'd told the Clan where he was going, or at least Oracle, trusting Babs to get the word to the others. Of course, Oracle had been her usual self, full of quesions. When he'd called her up over the comm system, she'd immediately suspected something. "What's up?" He'd paused for a moment, trying to think of a rational way of explaining things, and she'd jumped to a not altogether incorrect conclusion. "Girl problems?" "What?! No, no, you know my luck, I'm not chancing anything." She grinned for a moment. "Technically, that IS a problem with girls." Her grin faded. "But really, Timothy, you can't let what happened to Spoiler ruin the rest of your life." Dar was silent. "Fine. Anyway, you're probably actually calling about the Superboy that turned up in this universe today." He started and looked up at her on the monitor. She was grinning again. "He ran into Batman while looking for you in Gotham." Ah. Darkness couldn't help but smile. If Kon was as scared of Batman as the Kon here was, that must have been bad. "Yeah. They need my help. Do you think the others can hold things together without me for awhile?" She looked over her monitors. "Unless Jester breaks out I think we can handle anything." "Thanks, Babs. You'll tell the others?" "Yeah. See ya 'round, kid." He cut the connection.

Now only YJ was left. 'Cass first', he'd decided, and was visiting her room first. Batgirl was bedridden, for now at least, until her more major injuries healed. She hated it, but stayed in bed anyway, because she knew she would have to face Batman's and his own wrath if she hurt herself worse by exerting herself. 

He knocked first, then entered. She looked up at him, a book in her lap, and a stack next to her. He had been teaching her to read, with Babs' help, and had given her some books and comics to keep her occupied in bed. She smiled and waved him over, and he smiled back, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Reading." she said, gesturing at the book in her lap. She picked it up and pointed at the word "anxious". "What's that mean?" Darkness thought for a moment. "like scared or waiting for something. Hmmm.. Like, You're anxious to be able to get out of bed." She nodded emphaticly. "Yes. Thanks."

"Uh, Cass, I'm afraid I have to go away for awhile..." She watched him for a moment. "The other place?" "Yeah. They need my help. Robin's missing..." "Oh. Go help then," she clasped his hand in a firm handshake. "Don't get hurt." He smiled back at her and clasped her hand in return. "I'll try." "Do. Or do not. There is no try." She smiled. "Oh god...You're quoting Yoda..." he groaned. "Smart old green man." He laughed at that. "Thanks Cass. Take care of yourself." She nodded, and he left. One down, 4 to go. 

He called up another meeting of YJ, inviting Kon as well. Soon, the meeting room filled up again. "So, Dar, what's up? You said it was urgent." That was Superboy, lounging in his chair next to Valkyrie. She glanced up at Dar, anticipating what was coming. "It's something to do with our visitor, isn't it?" she asked. Darkness nodded. "Visitor?" Superboy asked, "Who?" From his seat, Chronos grinned. "I bet I know!" Darkness shook his head. 'He probably DID see Kon fly in... Or one of his "Scouts" did.' He thought as he walked over to the door, and beckoned someone inside. 

Kon came in, looking around at the team curiously. He started when he saw Chronos. It was Bart! Still superheroing and everything. He missed the kid, now that he wasn't around. Kon started when he winked at him. 'What the?' he thought. The other Superboy just stared with his mouth hanging open.

"Uh?!" he asked, then leapt to his feet. "Match?!" Kon held up his hands. "No! No!, I'm me! Uh, I'm Kon El!" "What?!" Superboy screeched to a halt halfway through his leap at Kon's throat. Dar stepped forward. "If I may... Remember how I went to that other universe awhile ago?" He looked at Superboy. "Yeah..." he paused a moment. "You mean, that's me? "He asked, double taking at Kon. Kon smirked. "Nice costume." "Yeah, you too."

"Kon came here looking for my help, actually. My counterpart has gone missing and they need my help to find him." "Why just you?" a girl in the back, next to Chronos asked. "Because since he and I are the same person, I may be able to find him if he's gone to ground. And I know Gotham better than almost anyone, Arrowette." Kon looked again. It was Cissie alright, but she looked different somehow, and it wasn't just the large white wings. Her hair was tied back into a tight braid and hung down her back like rope. Her arms were patterned chaotically with scars, and her crossbow sat ready in front of her. That's what was different. This Cissie was more prepared for a fight than the other had ever been. She looked more dangerous than glamorous, a definite difference from the Cissie he knew.

"But what about the differences between our Gotham and his?" the Bart look-alike asked. Kon almost raised an eyebrow. That definitely didn't sound like a typical Bart-remark. 

"I had a chance to survey Gotham while I was there Chronos." Darkness turned to the tousle-haired young man. He still didn't know what to think of Chronos. Most of the time he acted like a little kid, always happy and kinda hyper. But every so often, he'd say or do something that made you realize he was more intelligent than anyone could possibly imagine. And then there were his powers. He was quite possibly was the fastest being on the planet. Throw in the fact that he can create 'scouts' of himself that can travel in time, and possibly travel in time himself, and he was startling. All that under an innocuous mop of brown hair and red clothes. 

"I have already decided to go, if you think you can handle things here for awhile." Darkness looked expectantly at Valkyrie, who would be the one to know if they would be tactically sound with him gone. It still amazed him how good she was at knowing who could do the most where. It was one reason he considered handing over his position as leader to her. She thought a moment. "I think we'll do allright. Go ahead and pack. I was wondering if we could ask, ermn, Kon some questions?" Darkness nodded. "I guess." He shrugged at Kon. "What do you say?" Kon nodded and Dar left him to the mercy of a curious Young Justice.

--END!--

Alleluia! Chapter 3 is finally finished! 

*Rae is sitting in a comfy chair in a fairly hotel-like room. A sleepy Darkness is sitting on the bed, hair pointing every direction in a strange imitation of Lobo's hair.*

Rae: There! Done. 

Darkness: Nuh? Good. can I go back to sleep now? I'm VERY tired. 

Rae: Me too. Go on. We'll talk about chapter 4 tomorrow...

(Disclaimer : Young Justice and all associated characters belong to DC. I own this story, and the Seraphic Universe. ^_^ and all associated characters.)


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